when i try to send an email directly from a site, rather than from my outlook express, the message ends up unsent and in my outlook (97?) outbox. when i attempt to send it from there, i get no response. kip

Right click it in the outbox then set it to "Mark as Unread" (I'm assuming Outlook is the same as Outlook Express in this respect). See if you can send it then. No answer to the actual problem but it might be the reason it stays in the Outbox. Derek.W

thanks for the hint--i tried right clicking the outbox and marking message as unread, but only get an error message saying i cant do that. kip

Can I double check that: Did you left click the Outbox then right click "the message" and attempt to mark it as Unread? If so what was the "exact" error message? What it actually says might give some clue on the total problem. Derek.W

when i right click on the message in the outbox, the pop-up window says MICROSOFT OFFICE OUTLOOK then says " cannot mark the items read or unread. the likely reasons are: you dont have permission to modify items---these folders dont support marking items as read or unread--you did not select anything to mark----the server is unavailable." what do you think?

It think it's very weird LOL. Just to see whether this is an Outlook problem, or something to do with sending emails directly from a website try this: Go to Outlook and see if you can toggle mark as read/unread in some other box such as "Sent Items". If this works then generate a test message (addressed to yourself for example). Hit Send and obviously it should end up in your Outbox. See if this test message will toggle read/unread in the Outbox or whether you get the error message. I'm not sure quite where we are going with this but it might give us a better idea what it is that messes it up. Derek.W

did you check in your IE to see what the main e-mail program is? With IE open tools>internet options>programs>email It's hard to do a good job When you have a monkey on your back